Toward a Scientific Understanding and Treatment of Problems

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Transcript of Toward a Scientific Understanding and Treatment of Problems

Toward a Scientific Understanding and Treatment of Problems Education Finance & Governance Research, Media & Government The Corporation Religion &the Arts Like the cardio-vascular system, finance and governance distribute 'oxygen and nutrients' Like the reproductive system, education re-creates our society with every new generation Like the muscular system,the corporation organizes us in acting upon our environment Like the brain, the nervous system and the sensory organs, knowledge work makes us aware of the world and capable of functioning in it Like the skeleton and the ligaments, religion* and the arts bind us firmly together By "scientific" we mean the kind of approach that distinguishes for ex. scientific medicine from intuitive attempts at remedying unwanted symptoms. The idea is to 'look under the skin' and at the 'anatomy' of the social systemic structures that are producing problems, and to conceive the treatment on that level. This visual essay is an introduction to the systemic approach to problems, as practiced by The Club of Zagreb and the Game-changing Game. I have become increasingly convinced that [people] cannot give direction to their lives, they cannot forge their destiny, they cannot take charge of their future—unless they also develop competence to take part directly and authentically in the design of the systems in which they live and work, and reclaim their right to do so. This is what true empowerment is about.

(Bela Banathy, Designing Social Systems in a Changing World) Health Care, Democracy & Academia As parts of the 'societal immune system', health care, democracy and academia keep us well and ward off 'cancers and infections'.

In 2005 Ferguson decided to use his wealth and his insider’s knowledge of the US economy and politics to bring to public attention certain insights, which he found urgently needed. He subsequently produced two feature length documentary films, No End in Sight and Inside Job. Charles Ferguson Charles Ferguson got a degree in mathematics from the UC Berkeley and a doctorate in political science from the MIT. As a post-doc at MIT he consulted for the White House, the Department of Defense and several leading IT companies. In 1994 Ferguson founded Vermeer, the IT company that developed FrontPage, the first visual Web page editor. Two years later Ferguson sold Vermeer to Microsoft for $133 million, and continued to do research, consulting and writing in political science. This latter film, which won the 2010 Academy Award as the best documentary, showed how the 2008 financial crisis was caused ‘from the inside’, i.e. by the people and developments within the US financial services industry, popularly known as ‘Wall Street’. Ferguson’s first film, which was nominated for the Academy Award in 2008, showed how similar developments in the US government led to the present war in Iraq; how the reasons for this war that were given to the public did not reflect reality; and how after the occupation the country was mismanaged, which brought it into a condition of escalating chaos. In Inside Job, Ferguson also pointed at a relationship between the institutional protagonists of his two films, the financial services and the government, by an expert interviewee’s observation “It’s a Wall Street government!” which was made about the government that President Obama selected following his 2008 election. To see how much is wasted—and also how systemic action can turn large contemporary problems in into even larger opportunities—we move mentally from the US to England, and take a brief look at David McCandless’ Billion-Dollar-o-Gram (McCandless, 2009). A selection of contemporary issues are represented as rectangles, and the number of billions of dollars that handling an issue might cost by the area of its corresponding rectangle. Two issues—exactly the ones that Ferguson chose to point at in his films—dominate this image; and indeed so overwhelmingly that the costs of other represented issues, such as to “save Amazon” or “to lift 1 billion people out of extreme poverty”, seem tiny in comparison. A large opportunity that follows was pointed at by Buckminster Fuller in the early 1970s. Fuller claimed that by the end of the century we would reach what he called ‘“the end of scarcity”—that science and technology would develop so much that we would have enough knowledge and resources to take care of everyone’s needs. What we have just seen shows that he may have been right—we may indeed have sufficient resources; our problem may no longer be the lack of resources, but the way those resources are used and distributed. Buckminster Fuller (John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy, p. 454, 1848.) "It is only in the backward countries of the world that increased production is still an important object. In those most advanced, what is economically needed is a better distribution." John Stuart Mill Ferguson's two films show how the societal 'cardio-vascular system' can waste 'nutrients' in two ways:Directly (the financial crisis)Indirectly — by allocating them to wrong causes, in this case the war. How did our financial system come to be this way? Why is it not democratically, and rationally created? A problem is that Bank of England, Deutsche Bank, the US Federal Reserve... are private corporations. Why is even the government borrowing from private banks? Why can't it create a system that works —for itself, and for its people? How did this odd state of affairs develop? The Money Masters documentary will show that those key questions have been taken up by insightful political leaders throughout the history of modern democracy—so far without success! An alternative story introduction to this problematique may be through Paul Grignon as character and Money as Debt as film. The story could tell how Paul Grignon, while still in high school, had the insight that exponentially growing money (because it is borrowed hence has to make interest) on a finite planet is by its very nature non-sustainable—and a driving force of non-sustainability. Grignon modeled his life accordingly. Years later, when he got a small inheritance, he bought a computer and learned some animation techniques and... (combined with years of research)... Money as Debt films were born By "problems" we mean first of all the characteristic large contemporary issues related to the environment, economy, health and poverty; but also other, even personal problems, since all of them are at least in part influenced by larger, systemic causes. "Like most Americans, I don’t know a damn thing about high finance. (...);. Within the same two-week time frame, a third top-five investment bank, Marrill Lynch, would sink to the bottom alongside Lehman Brothers thanks to a hole blown in its side by years of reckless gambling debts (...) The root cause of all these disasters was the unraveling of a huge bubble of investment fraud that floated the American economy for the better part of a decade. This is a pretty big story, but for the moment I know nothing about it. Take it as a powerful indictment of American journalism that I’m far from alone in this among the campaign press corps charged with covering the 2008 election. None of us understands this stuff. We’re all way too busy watching to make sure X candidate keeps his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance, and Y candidate goes to church as often as he says he does, and so on.(...)

Like most reporters, I’ve had to expend all the energy I have just keeping track of who compared whom to Bob Dole, whose minister got caught gripping about America on tape, who sent a picture of whom in African ceremonial garb to Matt Drudge..."

(Matt Taibbi, "Griftopia") But as it turns out, so many of them are not only recruited from Wall Street, but indeed from a specific building at Wall Street — Goldman-Sachs. That makes even this inter-Wall Street power contest—over the influence on Washington—heavily misbalanced, seehttp://the-classic-liberal.com/white-goldman-sachs-house/ Matt Taibbi COMMENTS ON"SCIENCE IN A NEW SITUATION – THE ROLE OF BASIC RESEARCH"Letter to the Norwegian Research Council, August 2004Dino Karabeg Associate Professor, University of OsloI followed your Science In A New Situation – The Role Of Basic Research conference with interest and enthusiasm, feeling glad to see signs of positive change. With this letter I would like to offer my contribution to your welcome and timely initiative.What has prompted me to write was that for about a decade I have been doing research at the University of Oslo that followed the lines recommended by several of your invited speakers. I thought that my experiences might be of value to you if you decide to consider reorganization.This letter is organized as follows:1. I give a summary of your invited speakers’ ideas that point to a specific new role of basic research.2. I point out that the present organization of academic research presents an obstacle to fulfilling that new role.3. I outline the development of the methodological approach to information at the University of Oslo whose purpose is to overcome this obstacle.4. I conclude by an appeal to the NRC to help us develop an academic culture in Norway that supports the new role.

See the whole letter at http://DinoKarabeg.info/ID/Misc/NFR-cmts.pdf And now my point:

This is not about the Wall Street, or the government, or any other specific institution or group.

This is about the very way in which our institutions ARE - and have been evolving! Bela Banathy Know-howFixed for lifeOld disciplines, doesn't evolveCompete and get aheadCreativityWorldview We asked a systems scientist

If you would choose a single insight that emerged from systems science, which would be of highest benefit to our society, what would it be?

He answered

"It's all about the autopoiesis" (society's capacity for continued self-renewal) The question remains,How much is wasted? With a bit of imagination, we may imagine a variety of other principles for allocating the resources i.e. creating the 'social cardio- vascular system' — for ex. maximizing the degree in which each human 'cell' is given a chance to contribute to the organism's—and its own—well-being. As the things are now, we must ask—What happens as the technology makes human work less needed? How did it come to be this way? Explore Paul Grignon's Web site: http://www.moneyasdebt.net/

Don't miss his gallery of quotations, under "References & Links". For more information A question is of course to what degree is our 'collective nervous system' free of influence by 'special interests'. Many good documentary films and books are available about this theme, see for example the Shadows of Liberty,http://shadowsofliberty.org/ How well does it work? This system can waste 'nutrients' byusing them up itselfallocating them to ineffective causes How suitable is its principle of operation? Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world, is either a madman or an economist.” (Kenneth Boulding, economics professor) Reflections:Does the financial system's very principle of operation (exp. growth of money supply dictated by the fact that money is borrowed hence must earn interest) enforce the exponential growth of borrowing—and consymption?What does this mean for 'sustainability'?What does this mean for our ability to use technological development to our personal and cultural well-being? Explore:Tim Jackson's lecture and other material provided at http://postgrowth.org/tim-jackson-prosperity-without-growth/The Steady-State Economy Conference, Leeds 2010: http://steadystate.org/learn/leeds2010/Enough is Enough book website http://steadystate.org/discover/enough-is-enough/ Is the treadmill of our economy a direct consequence of the nature of our financial system? See The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard Our aim is an insight—that when instead of simply reacting to 'problems', and trying to 'solve' them within the constraints of existing social habits and systems, we undertake to develop and use a body of knowledge, practices, technology and a 'culture' that will augment our shared ability to achieve impact, then something quite wonderful can happen, similar to the advent of scientific medicine or science in general. By providing this material we invite you to explore this possibility — and to contribute to its realization! How well does this work? How suitable is its founding principle? How did it get to be this way? "money as debt" —means money supply must grow exponentially? Notice: War is 'good business':for the bankers—because they lend the money to the governmentfor the 'government contractors' and specifically the weapons industry—where the prices, hence the profits, are not determined through free competition on the market for the politicians—this being a business where they can project competence and gain popularity pointsfor the informing media—wars are of course first-page news that make the paper sellThe costs, of course, are paid by the people on both sides. 'reality construction' vs. systemic function religion & the arts The foundations frontier / design epistemology Re-creating knowledge work on a pragmatic ('reasonable') foundation. What should our information be like to be functional in its role? Methodological approach. Further half century-old insights... Both the media informing and the sciences create 'a true reality picture' by updating a traditional one (wars, elections etc. in the case of the first, physics, chemistry, biology... in the case of the second).The point here is that the worldview is* part of the problem, preventing solution* belongs to - let us call it that - the naive epistemology (one that ignores available information). Joel Bakan How well does it work? How suitable is its principle of operation? How did it get to be this way? Joel Bakan is "a Canadian writer, jazz musician, filmmaker, and professor at the University of British Columbia Faculty of Law" (Wikipedia), who got his first law degree from Oxford University. Similarly as Ferguson, Bakan too saw that something large is legal yet not necessarily legitimate in his profession. It took him and his two partners seven years to put together the funding and produce a documentary—which then won 25 international awards. A century and a half after its birth, the modern business corporation, an artificial person made in the image of a human psychopath, now is seeking to remake real people in its image.(Bakan, Wikiquotes) See the trailer See the whole film — it begins with an explanation of how the corporation evolved to be the most powerful institution. The point Bakan aims to bring across is his main one, the one belonging to his profession: The corporation is legal — but is it legitimate? The main point that interests us is here: The corporation is designed (by law) to be an 'externalizing machine'—i.e. to maximize profit to its shareholders, and to 'externalize' the costs. Please understand carefully how this reflects upon 'sustanability'. Add the fact that the capital is international or fluid, and you have a complete enough picture of a genesis of a systemic 'psychopath' The legitimacy of a legal 'person' that has human rights but no human conscience or responsibilities (you cannot put the corporation into prison) is what needs to be questioned (explains Bakan). Zygmunt Bauman has coined a useful word: "adiaphorization" — to name a process resulting in the condition where unethical consequences are possible without ethical judgment or responsibility; is the international corporation also an instrument of international adiaphorization? How suitable is it for its roles? Education is autopoiesis or these ones by Sir Ken Robinson We must carefully examine the claims such as this one by Noam Chomsky How suitable are its principles of operation? How well does it work? We then look at health care through the story of medical researcher Werner Kollath, who perceived that health care needed to change—to respond to the new kind of disease that was beginning to be prominent in the first half of the last century when he lived and worked How suitable is its principle of operation? See the rest of the text—read between two *'s athttp://polyscopy.wordpress.com/2010/09/17/ode-to-self-organization-–-part-two-2/#Vignette_4 Imagine if there might be 'a one-line theorem' about the non-sustainability of our monetary system—showing that our monetary system is a sure cause to pending economic and environmental disasters.

Imagine our political leaders entirely ignoring this...

Imagine if even if they would know it, there would be nothing they could do—only being able to 'keep the boat afloat' for another 4-yr term, characteristically by borrowing—and spending—more money. And more... Aldolus Huxley: Perennial Philosophyhttp://archive.org/details/perennialphilosp035505mbp

Read the introduction, where Huxley explains both his conclusion (that certain kind of practice leads to certain kinds of insights and experiences), his method, and why his method is 'scientific' (by comparing it with the scientific experiment) Martin Lings Father Mother Beauty Truth Freedom Hero ... ... Love God What condition is it in? A question may be asked—yet we may never be able to answer it—what percentage of these people are indeed capable of understanding the message of their creed's saintly progenitor—because they have 'fulfilled the conditions'...?And what percentage of them really has no clue—and are therefore basing their creed on the specifics of a thosand years-old worldview and lifestyle? And instead of liberating people's minds and souls, making them dependent on atavistic power structure? "The PerennialPhilosophy is primarily concerned with the one, divineReality substantial to the manifold world of things and livesand minds. But the nature of this one Reality is such that itcannot be directly and immediately apprehended except bythose who have chosen to fulfil certain conditions, makingthemselves loving, pure in heart, and poor in spirit. Whyshould this be so ? We do not know. It is just one of thosefacts which we have to accept, whether we like them or not andhowever implausible and unlikely they may seem. Nothing inour everyday experience gives us any reason for supposing thatwater is made up of hydrogen and oxygen; and yet when wesubject water to certain rather drastic treatments, the nature ofits constituent elements becomes manifest. Similarly, nothingin our everyday experience gives us much reason for supposingthat the mind of the average sensual man has, as one of its constituents,something resembling, or identical with, the Realitysubstantial to the manifold world; and yet, when that mind issubjected to certain rather drastic treatments, the divine element,of which it is in part at least composed, becomes manifest,not only to the mind itself, but also, by its reflection inexternal behaviour, to other minds. It is only by makingphysical experiments that we can discover the intimate natureof matter and its potentialities. And it is only by makingpsychological and moral experiments that we can discover theintimate nature of mind and its potentialities. In the ordinarycircumstances of average sensual life these potentialities of themind remain latent and unmanifested. If we would realizethem, we must fulfil certain conditions and obey certain rules,which experience has shown empirically to be valid." How suitable is its principle of operation? Can you imagine a world where religion, like science, became a 'victim' of 'naive epistemology'—and instead of aiming to freely communicate relevant human experience, became addicted to a single worldview, and took THAT to be its essential message? Kollath: Medicine must change"The domain of the non-specific"Schnitzer: Food is superior to medication 1 0 + The continuum of health or well-being Werner Kollath Against the intellectualist tradition, Bourdieu stressed that mechanisms of social domination and reproduction were primarily focused on bodily know-how and competent practices in the social world. Bourdieu fiercely opposed Rational Choice Theory as grounded in a misunderstanding of how social agents operate. Social agents do not, according to Bourdieu, continuously calculate according to explicit rational and economic criteria. Rather, social agents operate according to an implicit practical logic—a practical sense—and bodily dispositions. Social agents act according to their "feel for the game" (the "feel" being, roughly, habitus, and the "game" being the field).(...)Doxa refers to the learned, fundamental, deep-founded, unconscious beliefs, and values, taken as self-evident universals, that inform an agent's actions and thoughts within a particular field. Doxa tends to favor the particular social arrangement of the field, thus privileging the dominant and taking their position of dominance as self-evident and universally favorable. Therefore, the categories of understanding and perception that constitute a habitus, being congruous with the objective organization of the field, tend to reproduce the very structures of the field. A doxic situation may be thought of as a situation characterized by a harmony between the objective, external structures and the 'subjective', internal structures of the habitus. In the doxic state, the social world is perceived as natural, taken-for-granted and even commonsensical.(Wikipedia) "It suffices to have 'the freedom of speech' and to 'tell the truth' — how the things really are in reality" naive epistemology: truth = correspondence with reality Points:the naive epistemology is unaffected by available informationour knowledge work has no way to reconfigure itself based on its own findings A 'deadly' combination of naive epistemology and various—both conscious and unconscious—forms of manipulation The Academia The academia is an especially significant sub-system in this larger one, because we academic researchers are sponsored by the public to think freely and independently; we are the ones who are by design not the function of the financial bottom line.

I will tell this academic story from a specific—namely personal—angle, in order to highlight a point that I find central. So imagine that somebody, somewhere in academia, undertakes to act in function of the systemic role of the academia—i.e. decides to do what seems necessary for this role to be better, or in a true sense, fulfilled.

What do you think would happen? Following the conference "Science in a New Situation–The Role of Basic Research" organized by the Norwegian Research Council, and a spirited conversation with the main organizer on a boat tour on which he suggested me to submit a letter, I offered my own experience as 'an experiment' whose results could be useful to someone attempting a re-organization. Imagine yourself now in the role of my Norwegian Research Council deputy direction, after having received this letter. Of in the role of the University of Oslo Rector, who also received a copy. Imagine what it would mean REALLY DOING the reform: it would mean upsetting practically all the existing academic power structures. Imagine now what it would mean NOT DOING the reform—is there anyone who will complain? It will now not be difficult to guess what came out of this reform initiative. Why our problems are too deep to be solved by 'occupying Wall Street' “Elections are an especially revealing example, for voting is the only form in which most citizens ever participate directly in government and is also the political behavior that has been most widely and most rigorously studied. School teachers, good government groups like the League of Women Voters, and candidates themselves never tire of repeating that voting gives the people control over their officials and policies, that the citizens who fail to volte should not complain if he gets poor government, and that elections are fundamental to democracy. But, rather paradoxically, the voting behavior studies have shown that issues are a minor determinant of how people cast their ballots, most voters being quite ignorant of what the issues are and of which party stands for which position. We also know from studies of legislative and administrative behavior that neither of these depends primarily upon election outcomes. So what people get does not depend mainly on their votes. It does not follow that election campaigns are unimportant or serve no purpose. It is rather that the functions they serve are different and more varied from the ones we conventionally assume and teach. They give people a chance to express discontents and enthusiasms, to enjoy a sense of involvement. This is participation in a ritual act, however; only in a minor degree is it participation in policy formation. Like all rituals, whether in primitive or modern societies, elections draw attention to common social ties and to the importance and apparent reasonableness of accepting the public policies that are adopted. Without some such device no policy can survive and retain the support and acquiescence of its members."(Murray Edelman: The Symbolic Uses of Politics) Murray Edelman How well does it work? We look at democracy through the works of the political scientist Murray Edelman and his colleagues, who understood that the function of much of what is commonly understood as instruments of democratic control has in fact a completely different, symbolic function: How suitable are its principles of operation? Healthcare p. 300: There is no more doubt, that the lasting increase in death numbers from civilization diseases stems from the dissonance between the natural laws of life and by us created environment as well as the corresponding worldviews. The attempts, through laws, regulations, organizations etc., to create remedies, seem to be destined to failure.

The conditions for a success will only be given, when the biological and medical research will succeed to develop a new worldview from the observable facts, which will have to be sufficiently simple and comprehensive to be understood by all people. Only such simple worldview can remove the danger that threatens us today: The disintegration of the entire culture and the establishment of a technocracy, which causes the human values that perfect the individual to vanish behind the mass-induced ones. This question is of so high significance, that it must be thoroughly examined. In a biography she wrote about her husband, Elisabeth Kollath summarizes various awards and praises that followed the publication of Werner Kollath’s first book, “Foundations, Method und Aims of Hygiene. An Introduction for Medical Professionals and Natural Scientists, Policy Makers and Technicians” in 1937 and adds: “There were, however, not only recognitions, but also opposition, which was caused by the third part of the book, the one which talked about nutrition. It was then that the food industry became conscious of this man, who was in the position to disturb their order of things. The sugar and chocolate industry came first and demanded with threats the withdrawal of the entire work, or at least to cover the pages by which it felt attacked. Kollath refused, and that was the beginning of the battle against the “Enemy Kollath” which would continue throughout his life. The canned food industry came out somewhat later, and soon also the pharmaceutical industry assumed an antagonistic position.” A variety of strategies were used to discredit Kollath. Elisabeth Kollath writes: “Kollath, to whose upright being every form of plotting is foreign, suffered under such attacks, which – although always changing in form – remained in essence the same.” On October 23, 1961, Kollath wrote in his diary: “The unrest never stops. They attempt to rush me to death and will in the end succeed. [...] It is as if the world has gone crazy. My experiments are right, but the interpretations for the people do not get accepted, they are not acknowledged. [...] Slowly I prepare myself for a dignified and already belated withdrawal. Pity, I could have done a lot more! I am tired of nonsense.” Democracy Academia Censur en 1939 par le ministre franais des Affaires trangres, dtruit en 1940 par les Allemands, ce livre a t finalement rdit au dbut des annes 1950 dans sa version actuelle augmente et actualise. C'est un trait classique de psychologie sociale qui cherche dmonter comme comprendre les mcanismes auxquels obissent les foules, les masses et, plus gnralement, la formation de la volont politique et l'action politique. Quatre impulsions affectives primaires sont mises en oeuvre par la manipulation propagandiste et idologique : l'agressivit, l'intrt matriel immdiat, l'attirance sexuelle au sens large, la recherche de la scurit et de la norme. Cette psychologie sociale discute, bien sr, Freud, mais aussi Jung, Tarde et Pavlov. C'est bien videmment sur le terrain historique de l'affrontement entre propagande nazie et ristance social-dmocrate que l'auteur se situe dans un premier temps pour analyser les raisons du fulgurant succs de Hitler et celles de l'chec de la dmocratie. Mais il tend ses investigations au-del de ces vnements et traite aussi de la propagande sovitique, de l'affrontement idologique de la guerre froide, du pacifisme, bref, des formes gnrales de la propagande, de sa russite ou de son chec, ainsi que des moyens d'y rsister, ce qui conduit l'auteur, savant biologiste, parler ici en sociologue et, surtout, en pdagogue. Sergei Stepanovitch Tchakhotine The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action.(Wikipedia) PUBLIC SPHERE —> DEMOCRACY The communicative network of a public made up of rationally debating private citizens has collapsed; the public opinion once emergent from it has partly decomposed into the informal opinions of private citizens without a public and partly become concentrated into formal opinions of publicistically effective institutions.(Habermas) Symbolic (as distinguished from systemic) approach to contemporary issues Imagine our Norwegian Science Foundation Deputy Directory considering his two options Results in20th century physics, however, constituted a rigorous scientific disproof of those foundations — as WernerHeisenberg carefully explained in Physics and Philosophy [3]. He concluded:“In this way, finally, the nineteenth century developed an extremely rigid frame for naturalscience which formed not only science but also the general outlook of great masses of people.This frame was supported by the fundamental concepts of classical physics, space, time, matterand causality; the concept of reality applied to the things or events that we could perceive by oursenses or that could be observed by means of the refined tools that technical science hadprovided. Matter was the primary reality. The progress of science was pictured as a crusade ofconquest into the material world. Utility was the watchword of the time.On the other hand, this frame was so narrow and rigid that it was difficult to find aplace in it for many concepts of our language that had always belonged to its very substance, forinstance, the concepts of mind, of the human soul or of life. (…) It was especially difficult tofind in this framework room for those parts of reality that had been the object of the traditionalreligion and they seemed now more or less only imaginary. (…) Confidence in the scientificmethod and in rational thinking replaced all other safeguards of the human mind. (…)Coming back now to the contributions of modern physics, one may say that the mostimportant change brought about by its results consists in the dissolution of this rigid frameof concepts of the nineteenth century. Of course many attempts had been made before to getaway from this rigid frame which seemed obviously too narrow for an understanding of theessential parts of reality. (…) Only experimental research itself, carried out with all the refinedequipment that technical science could offer, and its mathematical interpretations, provided thebasis for a critical analysis—or, one may say, enforced the critical analysis—of those concepts,and finally resulted in the dissolution of the rigid frame. (Boldface is added by this author.) Science came into the role of truth and worldview provider based on the legitimacy of "knowing how the world works" The future will either be an inspired product of a great cultural revival, or there will be no future.(Aurelio Peccei, co-founder and first president of The Club of Rome) Illustration In the 1957 Western classic "3:10 to Yuma", the hero of the movie has the impossible task to bring a convict to Yuma prison, against his band, and without help. He is a family man, not a gunman. Much of the film portrays his struggle to stay on his course, knowing that his chances to succeed are close to zero. At the end of the film—shown by the excerpt provided here on the right, he finds himself in a hopeless situation, where the train is already leaving and the bandits are about to shoot him. Then something unexpected happens—the convict comes to his side and helps him! The message is clear—there is something in each of us that responds, when stimulated strongly enough and in the right way. And it is that 'something' that naturally empowers us and joins us together in building a better and more just social world. The ending of the 2007 remake is different—the band members kill the hero. The justice is no longer allowed to win—that would feel too naive. Instead, the band leader kills his bandits. Is this new version saying/prophesizing perhaps that—having lost the contact with the archetype—what remains for us to do is to kill one another? (Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy, Introduction) Justice Principle of operation: Debt - and interest - mean we have made a committment to produce and spend more, in the next year. Hence grow our production and spending exponentially. Otherwise our debts will default — and we'll have a recession. We'll have unemployment. We'll have... —means the wealth of those who lend money must grow exponentially? —means public debt—hence spending, i.e. consumption, and production—must grow exponentially? Interest payments on government bonds ultimately come out of the national income tax, that is to say,the taxpayersʼ pockets. Interest on private bonds ultimately comes out of prices, in other words, theconsumersʼ pockets. So it is clear that, either way, the public as a whole pays interest to privateparties with sufficient excess wealth to buy bonds, in order for “cash” or “base money” to exist.In normal times, cash is created only to buy government bonds. Therefore, the following pertains to theusual practice of creating cash by the direct or indirect purchase of government debt by the central bank.Government debt is never paid off. It usually just steadily increases. Government bonds that comedue are replaced with more government bonds much like a Ponzi scheme. So, given that cash isbased upon bonds on which interest will be paid ad infinitum by the public, the source of fiat currencyor “cash” under the current system of creating it is, quite literally, public debt increasing forever.Now, there is no reason that government canʼt simply create its own fiat currency debt-free, as many ofus imagine it does now, spending it at face value on behalf of the taxpayer. This method of creatingmoPaul as simple and clear as the current method is obscure.(Paul Grignon Grignon, Money as Debt) 1 0 + The continuum of health or well-beingIn the range between 1 and plus infinity completely new factors become dominant—such as 'the ability to feel'(...) Point of view at contemporary problematique from 'religion': It is as if a variety of details — our worldview, social Darwinism, the ecology of the corporation and the workplace — conspire to create an environment where 'religion' has little chance to grow. Having lost the contact with the archetypes, we are desperately trying to create a perfect set of rules that will protect us against—ourselves; or better said against what we have become.We have seen the enemy, and he is us, said Pogo. The actions of the hero can also be explained by only pragmatic considerations. Whether he is explicitly aware of this or not, somewhere in him there is the insight that if his children will have a solid world to live in, then he has to be upright and firm in his role, whatever may happen to him physically. Because the alternative—where the bad guys rule and people like him, and his son, serve them—is not the kind of world he wants to leave behind. And he doesn't! His act—by its very existence—has altered that world. I first learned about the archetypes while studying martial art in the school of Grandmaster Sang Kyu Shim. At the end of his Sunday class which lasted six hours, the Grandmaster would have one of his black belts read a short story from the martial art tradition. In one of them, a general of a Korean army that was vastly outnumbered by the enemy has a 14-yr old son, who jumps on his horse, rides into the enemy camp and spears a couple of them. They are about to kill him, but seeing he's only a boy, they send him back. Taking only as much time as he needed to drink a glass of water, the boy rides back and is beheaded and sent back. Inspired by his heroism and anguished by his end, his father's warriors jump on their horses and storm the enemy camp. When this ending was read, the Grandmaster, who normally kept silent or talked very little, would jump to his feet and obviously moved exclaim: "This is how I want you to be!"

I understood the martial art tradition as a social function, whose purpose was to create strong (i.e. rightl6y motivated) people on which the community could depend. Not only the martial art but also other arts, such as story telling, were employed to support this function.

I understood also the 'self defense' as being largely internal—preserving one's archetypal strength, against the social and internal hazards that are endangering it. Theory Praxis Religion & the arts as praxis:developing the connection with the archetypes; becoming empoweredobjects of the art - embody the connection; communicate the connectionritual, practice - bring one closer Ex: MARTIAL art Ex: film Huxley: Mapping the destination station... Q: What can we use to counter this power and to re-connect us and organize us in a new way? POWER as a magnetic field, orienting people. Following the ideal of art wherever it may take you, against the prevailing taste—and with hungry families:Reactions of the public: http://www.mmfa.org/uploadedFiles/Education/Adult_Learning/Louis%20Leroy.pdfHow Monet "When Monet traveled to Paris to visit the Louvre, he witnessed painters copying from the old masters. Having brought his paints and other tools with him, he would instead go and sit by a window and paint what he saw."(Wikipedia) BIRTH OF MODERN ART:"First appearing in Paris during the late 1860s and early 1870s, Impressionism was not recognized initially as anything special. Many of the members of the group were at odds with the official Salon, the organizing body for the French Academy of Fine Arts, whose selection-jury operated with unpredictable severity. So although other painters were impressed by some of its early works, Impressionism was not acknowledged as an important style of painting, either by art critics, collectors or the public. As a result, most Impressionist painters suffered severe financial hardship, and all had to fight for attention and commissions from patrons and critics alike. Despite friendships with leading figures in other areas of the creative arts (like the writer Emile Zola and the poet Baudelaire) mutual support and reassurance within the group was the critical factor in its survival."(Online Art Encyclopedia, http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/impressionism.htm) Mobbing.. fear of being left out of the game; mobbing the people who are playing other games

Ego = avatar in the game...

Re-ligion = transcending the identification with the ego, by identifying with 'something larger than oneself'; ultimately with ALL (joke: Make me One with All).

Intrinsic motivation vs. extrinsic one (reward) Peccei's final point: FIV GOALS Housing everyone...preserve environment(3)The Management of Society, Institutions and the Need for Innovation (A deep concern of the Club is that society is on the brink of ungovernability.human development - culturenon-violence It's the systems, stupid! It is time for systemic innovation Politics.Game-ChangingGame Good Journalism Prototype Innovation Ecosystem Prototype Patterns Implementation Patterns Implementation Public informing created by an innovation ecosystem Permanently re-createdTo fulfill key purposesTo employ state-of-the-art technologyTo employ knowledge about informing (sociology, political science, visual literacy...)To make good journalism make revenue DebateGraph (+ VMO) WikiDiario See Innovation Ecosystem Prototype Organizing, sense-making Making headline news Crowdsourcing news People tell their own stories; Researchers report their findings; Politicians speak about their agendas Asking experts Selective subscribing Taking issues into 'systemic domain' Subscribing to a theme of interest; subscribing to news with specific value mix (academic, highly relevant, about human health...) DebateGraph already has part of this function. Or in other words 'knowledge federation.' DebateGraph already has much of this function implemented. The editorial role is divided between the journalists and the 'crowd' Everyone has a possibility to create a 'butterfly' – i.e. to create a news that will stick, resonate, multiply, ignite an avalanche of reaction. Wikileaks for Insights 'Naive maths / science' (Media) communication Finding a leverage point DebateGraph (+ DMO) Journalists step in again (Student) research - of a new kind Visual Organization of KFMC DebateGraph (+ VMO) How to make the systemic issue – and its connection with daily-life phenomenology – understandable to non-experts? Hereby knowledge that exists in academic and other 'silos' is brought to bear upon understanding issues in public domain. A key insight: root causes – and solutions – to contemporary issues tend to be systemic. Here journalists – and also video, animation, (...) artists have a creative role We now reach the 'butterfly' from the other end – what courses of action are available that can lead to necessary systemic transformation? KFMC Making a difference Defects in Financial Services Industry are the underlying systemic reason problem - algorithm Theoretical models; simulation models How to make the systemic issue transparent – using story telling, photography, video – also animation... Here public action acquires relevance and meaning in the context of systemic insights Charles Ferguson Synopsis Use case showing KF in action PHASE Iidea extraction PHASE 2crowdsourcing insights KF Communityview Here we have what we wanted: Ideas were first taken out of silod articles, then represented in an accessible and interesting way (Phase 1), then submitted to in effect a jury trial - in cyberspace (Phase II) and finally presented to public in a state-of-the-art media way. Tesla and the Nature of Creativity

"There is a belief, current in many countries, which has been elevated to the rank of an official article of faith in the United States, that free competition is itself a homeostatic process: that in a free market, the individual selfishness of the bargainers, each seeking to sell as high and buy as low as possible, will result in the end of a stable dynamics of prices, and with redound to the greatest common good. This is associated with the very comforting view that the individual entrepreneur, in seeking to forward his own interest, is in some manner a public benefactor, and has thus earned the great reward with which society has showered him. Unfortunately, the evidence, such as it is, is against this simple-minded theory. The market is a game, which (...) is thus strictly subject to the general theory of games, developed by Von Neumann and Morgenstern. (...) In many cases, however, where there are three players, and in the overwhelming majority of cases, when the number of players is large, the result is one of extreme indeterminacy and instability. The individual players are compelled by their own cupidity to form coalitions; but these coalitions (...) usually terminate in a welter of betrayal, turncoatism, and deception, which is only too true a picture of the higher business life, or the closely related lives of politics, diplomacy and war. In the long run, even the most brilliant and unprincipled huckster must expect ruin; but let the hucksters become tired of this, and agree to live in peace with one another, and the great rewards are reserved for the one who watches for an opportune time to break this agreement and betray his companions. There is no homeostasis whatever. We are involved in the business cycles of boom and failure, in the succession of dictatorship and revolution, in the wars which everyone loses, which are so real a feature of modern times.(Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics, 1948) "Many characteristics of social systems mislead people. [...] Three counterintuitive behaviors of social systems are especially dangerous.

First, social systems are inherently insensitive to most policy changes that people choose in an effort to alter the behavior of systems. In fact, social systems draw attention to the very points at which an attempt to intervene will fail. Human intuition develops from exposure to simple systems. In simple systems, the cause of a trouble is close in both time and space to symptoms of the trouble. If one touches a hot stove, the burn occurs here and now; the cause is obvious. However, in complex dynamic systems [...]

Second, social systems seem to have a few sensitive influence points through which behavior can be changed. These high-influence points are not where most people expect. Furthermore, when a high-influence policy is identified, the chances are great that a person guided by intuition and judgment will alter the system in the wrong direction. For example, [...]

Third, social systems exhibit a conflict between short-term and long-term consequences of a policy change. A policy that produces improvement in the short run is usually one that degrades a system in the long run. Likewise, policies that produce long-run improvement may initially depress behavior of a system. This is especially treacherous. The short run is more visible and more compelling. Short-run pressures speak loudly for immediate attention. However, sequences of actions all aimed at short-run improvement can eventually burden a system with long-run depressants so severe that even heroic short-run measures no longer suffice. Many problems being faced today are the cumulative result of short-run measures taken in prior decades."

(Jay Forrester: "Counterintuitive Behavior of Social Systems", 1971 Jay W. Forrester Government is not the solution to our problem; government IS the problem.

(Ronald Reagan, 1980 ) How well is it structured? The Club of Zagreb Dejan's model online Dejan's model linked withrelated concepts and results Collective gestalt creation Results are made available to communities that need them Results are madeavailable to journalists